By Bonnie Washuk,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – It’s the same at Lewiston High School as it is throughout Maine and the nation: Girls are outperforming boys.

More girls make the top 10. Girls dominate extracurricular activities. More girls go to college.

That worries Joan Macri, head of the high school’s aspirations program, who fears that boys who skip college could be shut out of higher-paying careers.

One reason fewer boys go to college can be found in the student parking lot, Macri said. Boys are more likely to own cars and to get jobs to pay for them.

“They have to pay for insurance, gas, some make car payments,” she said. “They get part-time jobs. A lot of money goes into their cars.”

Learning can take a back seat to earning.

To change that attitude, parents of freshman boys are invited to a “Shifting Gears” meeting from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Thursday at the school. The guest speaker is Lynn Miller, an educator from the University of Southern Maine.

Parents won’t be lectured about letting their sons buy cars, but it’s important that they see there’s potential for a problem, Macri said.

Balancing cars and school

Two seniors with cars agree with the new focus on boys. James Chappell and Brian Nason said too many boys work too much, spend too much on their cars, and don’t go to college.

“The kids who work during the week a lot don’t focus on school,” Nason said.

“I don’t think they’re planning for the future,” Chappell added.

He and Nason said they balance school and work. Both said they’ll be in college this fall. Nason plans to attend the Maine Maritime Academy for engineering and Chappell plans to study business at one of the University of Maine campuses.

Chappell owns a 2000 Jetta he bought and improved with new tinted windows, fancy rims and a performance exhaust system. Nason installed a DVD player and an Xbox in his ’93 Mazda MX-6.

A hockey goalie, Nason works full-time during the summer and on weekends during the school year. Chappell works full-time in the summer and 20 hours a week during school.

Chappell decided not to play basketball this winter to work more, save for college and pay for his car, which costs him about $200 a month. He credits his parents for influencing his decision to go to college.

“At home it’s, ‘College, college, college,’ especially my mom,” Chappell said. “She didn’t get a degree and she wants me to.”

Aspirations change

Most of the students from the Class of 2005 who said they were going to college but didn’t were boys, Macri said.

Of those now in college, 58 percent are girls and 42 percent are boys. “That 16 percent difference is significant,” Macri said.

Boys’ aspirations change between eighth grade and junior year, she said. Macri’s observations and a gender-gap survey by Bates College student Melissa Simones show boys’ aspirations change about the time they get their driver’s licenses. Senior Chad Kordalski, a Shifting Gears steering committee member, said part of the reason is that boys get jobs. He estimated that 80 percent of students work, many of them for more than 20 hours a week.

The most a student should work is 15 hours a week, Macri said. Working 10 hours a week can enhance a student’s performance because it forces organization. But when students work more than 15 hours, “something has to give,” she said.

Working too much is only one cause of the gender gap, Macri said. Other reasons are how boys are influenced by teachers and parents, and how they learn. Some boys mature slower and may “goof off” without the right structure. Some boys also learn differently, doing better with hands-on lessons.

Research shows that actions taken 30 years ago to improve girls’ aspirations have worked.

“But the boys have stepped back and gotten out of the way,” Macri said.

It’s time to empower the boys, she said.